The Living Universe Foundation

Economy

The success of the Living Universe Foundation depends on a global structure that collaboratively focuses on long-term solutions. Our current economy is exactly the opposite, promoting borders and short-term profit. Rather than focusing on our similarities, we focus on our differences. Even if these self-imposed limitations are not enough reason to make a shift in our world view, the growing social inequality and environmental destruction will eventually make change inevitable.

A New Direction

We cannot remain prosperous if we continue to operate in an economy based on scarcity. Technology is capable of creating abundance, but from today's economic perspective, that is a negative thing. Just think, for example, how many tire manufacturing and service companies would collapse if a tire was made that could last ten times longer than what's currently available. If that happened, there would be no profit in that industry. Jobs would be lost and the health of the economy would be damaged.

Now imagine what would happen to the oil and gas companies if abundant, renewable energy was discovered. Many companies would vanish overnight. As the energy industry is a key economic driver, imagine how negatively that would affect our economy.

Our current economic model is incomplete. Never before has an economic system existed that is capable of dealing with key resources running out, key resources and products becoming abundant, and the effects of technological unemployment. Our economy is outdated. In order to achieve our full potential, we must learn to advance our economy at a pace equal to our technology.

It is likely that the economies of the future will evolve into a hybrid of several systems. Below are two possible systems humanity could move towards.

Order Through Collective Chaos

Democracy is a chaotic system. The course of a nation is decided by the collective input of the population as a whole, and out of this discord arises a clear declaration of intent. No individual or small group of individuals can dictate the direction and policies of a nation. This is self-determination at a massive scale.

No such system exists today.

Our current democracies elect people into office, and after that point the public has little to no say as to what those individuals decide. The only influence the public has is at the end of election cycles, when they can decide if they want a change in the officials. Current democracies effectively elect a dictator every few years.

This system was set up because at the time it was impossible for the masses to efficiently provide their input on all major decisions. With our current technology this is no longer the case. All major decisions--Is the higher priority industrial growth or environmental preservation? What government run systems should be provided? Should we intervene in the aggressive actions of another nation?--can now easily be put forward to the masses. The people can decide the fate of their nation, and the administration can work out the details as to how to realize the population's objectives.

Order Through Data

Every decision a human makes is done with incomplete information, as it is impossible for our minds to capture and process every factor that exists. Rather than relying on incomplete logic, we instead make decisions based on emotions. Our incomplete understanding allows us to be swayed by the person that can argue best. This is seen time and time again in the court room. In politics, there is always a liberal and a conservative solution, but in truth there is no liberal or conservative way to build an airplane; there is only the correct way.

Our technology has allowed us to move beyond making decisions based on opinions. Just as we can now use smart phones to end debates by fact checking, we can use computers to determine the most efficient way to solve a problem. This is applicable for all technical problems, including food distribution, infrastructure design, financial budgeting, resource allocation, education systems, and almost any other problems we face. For the most part society’s problems are technical, and a technical approach based on data should be used to solve them. This is not using artificial intelligence to make decisions for us; it is using a glorified calculator to consider as many factors as possible and provide us with the best approach to solve a problem or reach a dersired outcome.

The most notable proponents of this methodology is the Zeitgeist Movement, a global social movement with over 1000 chapters active in over 100 countries. Their solution is a Resource Based Economy.

Moving Forward

It is not clear what the social and economy systems of the future will look like. What is clear is that there is a growing desire to create a system worthy of humanity. This is risky business, as under the traditional land-based city structure, testing new economic models is nearly impossible. To properly pilot such a system, the testing environment must be isolated from other systems. It would not be possible, for example, to test a money-free system that relies on imports from currency based economies.

Aquarius and all other colonies, by their very nature, are perfectly suited to act as self-sufficient populations. By testing various social and economic systems in these colonies, humanity will avoid the pitfalls that have plagued previous socio-economic evolutions. Before any large-scale transition is attempted, any problems in the proposed system will have been identified and ironed out in a real-world environment.